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Background/Objectives: to evaluate the association between androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and newly developed neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in patients with prostate cancer. Methods: We identified 228,803 men from the nationwide claims database in the Republic of Korea diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1 August 2009 and 31 December 2018 and followed until April 2021. Cases were defined as those newly diagnosed with neovascular AMD during follow-up. Cases were matched with controls based on age, index date, and follow-up duration, at a case-to-control ratio of 1:4. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of incident neovascular AMD associated with ADT were estimated using conditional logistic regression. Results: The main analysis included 1700 cases and 6800 controls, with a median follow-up of 3.42 years. ADT was associated with a reduced risk of incident neovascular AMD in patients with prostate cancer (aOR = 0.840; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.743–0.951; p = 0.0058) in the multivariable analysis. A cumulative ADT duration less than 1 year was associated with a reduced risk of neovascular AMD (aOR = 0.727; 95% CI, 0.610–0.866; p = 0.0004); however, no association was observed when the duration of ADT was between 1 and 2 years (aOR = 0.862; 95% CI, 0.693–1.074; p = 0.1854) or more than 2 years (aOR = 1.009; 95% CI, 0.830–1.226; p = 0.9304). Conclusions: In patients with prostate cancer, medical castration for less than a year is associated with a reduced risk of incident neovascular AMD. These results suggest that androgens are involved in the pathogenesis of neovascular AMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interface resistivity, low ionic conductivity and side reactions between the carbon/Li and Li7P3S11 based materials are the supreme challenges in achieving high energy density all-solid state batteries. We report on improving the ionic conductivity of Li7P3S11 (LPS) through preparation strategies and attaining the functionality of all-solid Li-ion battery with moderate capacity. LPS samples are prepared employing high energy ball milling and solid-state synthesis methods (crystalline LPS) at low temperature. LPS samples exhibit stability against Li-metal up to 5 V with wider electrochemical window. Ionic conductivity of crystalline LPS sample is seen to be one order higher than that of ball milled sample. All-solid state battery consist of crystalline LPS solid electrolyte shows charge and discharge capacity of 86.5 and 59.0 mAh/g, respectively, at the first cycle. Fabricated LPS based all-solid batteries are demonstrated for the real time applications such as operating the temperature sensors and light emitting diodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The objective of this study was to determine effects of adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) on survival outcomes compared to surgery alone without AC for upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) patients with variant histology (VH). Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies investigating AC for UTUC in Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library up to January 2023. Population, intervention, comparator, and outcome were UTUC patients with VH, radical nephroureterectomy with AC, radical nephroureterectomy only, and oncological survival, respectively. Results: Four retrospective studies were included. Regarding overall survival (OS), the pooled hazard ratio was 0.61 (95% confidence interval: 0.42–0.87; p = 0.007) across two studies. Regarding cancer-specific survival (CSS), the pooled hazard ratio was 0.46 (95% confidence interval: 0.25–0.84; p = 0.01) across three studies. All included studies had a high quality based on the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Certainty of evidence for OS was low. Certainty of evidence for CSS was moderate due to a strong association (hazard ratio <0.5). Publication bias was not significant for any studies. Conclusion: In UTUC patients with VH, administration of AC after surgery might have better survival outcomes than surgery alone. Our study provides evidence for decision-making of clinicians who treat UTUC patients with VH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]